Region: East Asia/Pacific
J.
Bradley1, C. Howell1, M. Brown2 and P. Norman4
1National Forest Inventory 2Forestry Tasmania 4Queensland
Dept of Natural Resources
Australia has a history of long-term ecosystem research and monitoring. Whilst the concept of a co-ordinated national network of long-term ecological research sites has been discussed for some time it has only recently made tangible progress. Australia’s National Forest Inventory (NFI) in the Bureau of Rural Sciences, Canberra, has been the catalyst by taking up the role of coordinating the collation of information on Australia’s Long Term Ecological Research sites and hosting the Australian LTER website.At this stage, the Australian network is largely restricted to forest sites, although it is expected that this will diversify as Australian interest in LTER sites continues to grow as a consequence of increasing interest in the development and testing of sustainability indicators.
Interest in sustainability indicators has, in part, emerged as a result of the August 1998 release of an Australian framework of regional level criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management. This framework was developed and based on the internationally agreed national level Montreal Process criteria and indicators.
Australia’s Forests
Australia is located southeast of Asia and is the only country in the world to occupy a single continent. The Australian continent covers 7,682,300 sq km and has a diverse and unique ecology. It is populated by 19 million people making Australia the most sparsely populated continent after Antartica.
Australia has 155.8 million hectares of forest, covering almost 20 per cent of the total land area. Australia’s native forests account for approximately 154 million hectares of the total forest area, and plantations 1.3 million hectares. The native forests cover a wide range of topoclimatic zones, ranging from dry arid to wet tropical to cool temperate, and coastal to alpine environments. The geographic extent of Australia’s native forests is controlled largely by rainfall and temperature, with fire playing a major role in their ecology. Many forest species are dependent on fire to create conditions for regeneration.
Of the 910 plant communities recognised in Australia, 457 are considered as forest communities and are grouped into the following broad native forest types: eucalypt; acacia; melaleuca; rainforest; casuarina; mangrove; callitris; and ‘other’. The biodiversity of these forests is known to be high, even though many areas are yet to be documented. There are over 1200 vertebrate fauna species and 13 600 higher plant species known from forest areas of the continent.
Under Australia’s federal system of government, primary constitutional responsibility for land management rests with State and Territory Governments. The Commonwealth Government is responsible for coordinating national approaches to both environmental and industry development issues. Forested land tenure in Australia can be broadly classified into five tenure classes: conservation reserves (11 per cent of total forest); multiple-use (9 per cent); leasehold land (43 per cent); other crown land (10 per cent); and private forests (27 per cent).
Site Level Information
Information on one site in Tasmania (Warra), and three sites in Queensland (Barakula, St Mary and the Canopy Crane Research Site) have been included on the ALTERs website to date.Another 12 sites have been identified for inclusion as Australian LTER sites when information becomes available. Information on existing sites has been provided by Forest Management agencies of the respective States using a standard set of data, the format of which was developed, in consultation with them, and based largely on that used by the LTER networks of other countries.
Warra, Tasmania
The Warra site, located in Tasmania, has been established to facilitate the understanding of ecological processes of Tasmania’s wet (E. obliqua) forests. These forests are part of the southern cool temperate wet forest biome. Programs at the Warra site foster multi-disciplinary research within a long-term framework. The site contains both working forests and conservation reserves. Appropriate management prescriptions and practices prevail in different parts of the site.
The main objectives of the site are:
-To understand fundamental ecological processes in E. obliqua wet forests.
-To assess and monitor biodiversity and geodiversity.
-To determine the long term effects of different forest management regimes on natural diversity and ecological processes and thus assess their sustainability.
-Where necessary, to develop alternative management regimes.
-To provide an integrated multidisciplinary focus which complements research programs elsewhere in Tasmania.
-To link Tasmanian forest research with national and international programs having a long term ecological focus.
Barakula, Queensland
This site is a working forest, managed for logging (mainly cypress pine at present but also for hardwood), and grazing. There are six Scientific Areas (or proposed areas) within the site managed for the conservation of examples of rare ecosystems. A large number of permanent forest growth plots and research experiments exist in the area.
Current research activities in the Barakula LTER are aimed at:
* understanding fundamental ecological processes in Callitris and dry mixed eucalypt open-forests and woodlands;
* developing tools and techniques to assess and monitor biodiversity, productivity, and other forest values;
* determining the long term effects of different forest management regimes (including fire and grazing) on ecological processes, biodiversity, and forest productivity and thus assess the sustainability of such regimes;
* providing base-line information on trends in forest condition as a contribution to Queensland’s commitment to report on Montreal Process criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management;
* providing a focus for integrated multi-disciplinary research which complements research programs elsewhere in the state;
* linking Queensland forest research with national and international programs having a long term ecological focus.
St Mary, Queensland
The St Mary’s site is largely multiple-use forest including a number of permanent forest growth plots and long-term research experiments.
Current research activities at the St Mary LTER are aimed at:
* understanding fundamental ecological processes in dry mixed eucalypt open-forests and woodlands;
* developing tools and techniques to assess and monitor biodiversity, productivity, and other forest values;
* determining the long term effects of different forest management regimes (including fire and grazing) on ecological processes, biodiversity, and forest productivity and thus assess the sustainability of such regimes;
* providing base-line information on trends in forest condition as a contribution to Queensland’s commitment to report on Montreal Process criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management;
* providing a focus for integrated multi-disciplinary research which complements research programs elsewhere in the state;
* linking Queensland forest research with national and international programs having a long term ecological focus.
The Canopy Crane Research Facility, Queensland
This site was established in 1998 as a rainforest research facility based around a 50 m tower crane placed in the rainforest. The crane provides enhanced access to the rainforest canopy for researchers.
The central aim in establishing the site was to facilitate rainforest canopy research.